§ Order of the day for the Third Reading read.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD CROFT)My Lords, I beg to move that the Bill be now read a third time.
§ Moved that the Bill be now read 3,—(Lord Croft.)
LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, I apologize to my noble friend Lord Croft for not having given him longer notice that I intended to raise a certain matter, but I gave him what notice I could. I should have given him longer notice if I had known that my noble friend Lord Addison was not able to move his Motion to-day; and so, with the noble Earl, Lord Glasgow, we can all appreciate how sometimes the time-table gets upset. If Lord Addison had been speaking to-day on the subject of milk I should have waited for another occasion to raise this matter on the Army and Air Force (Annual) Bill. I should add that I am raising this question to-day with no feeling of hostility, but in order to clear up certain misapprehensions. The information I seek is about the right of men in uniform—or the absence of right, as the case may be—to attend political meetings. I understand that the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Air Ministry discourage members of the Armed Forces of either sex from taking an active part in politics. They have done so for years, and they always will do so, I suppose, so that as long as a man or a woman is in one of the Services he or she must refrain from active politics, unless he or she becomes a candidate for Parliament. There is some difference of treatment, or difference of 311 regulation, under different Commands, so far as I can ascertain, as to whether men and women in uniform can attend a political meeting. I should be very glad if my noble friend could tell us exactly what the situation is.
There are two cases. There is first the case of the ordinary political meeting. I must say that I have addressed a good many political meetings during the war, and at a great number of them there have been soldiers and sailors in uniform. We have never had any sort of trouble; they have behaved perfectly well, and I have no personal complaint whatsoever. I gather that in certain districts military police have warned men at political meetings that they must not listen to the speakers, and they have had to go away. In other cases, I am told, men in uniform in any of the Services can attend political meetings and no objection is taken. That is the ordinary case of the ordinary political meeting. The other case is where there is a contested by-election, and the soldier or airman is a voter on leave. Can he attend political meetings of the candidates and hear their views before he casts his vote? Furthermore, is he permitted, as a voter, to ask questions of the candidates in his constituency? My noble friend is aware that, particularly in Scotland, the heckling of candidates is a long-cherished right of the lieges, and I do not see why a man who happens to be serving his country in one of the Armed Forces should be deprived of that right when his vote is being sought by a candidate.
Those are the two cases. There is a difference between them, I admit, and I shall be glad of any information that my noble friend can give. I should like to make it clear, if I can, to my noble friend that personally I feel quite sure that the War Office, the Air Ministry and the Admiralty have no desire whatever to behave unreasonably in this matter, and that they wish to allow the men in their Services to exercise all the rights of citizens so long as there is no departure from the recognized customs of the Services.
§ LORD CROFTMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for having mentioned that he gave me short notice. It was, indeed, rather short notice, because I only received his courteous intimation that 312 he was going to raise this matter at one minute to twelve, when, I explained to him, I had a couple of deputations and a conference to attend between then and now. The answer to my noble friend, I am afraid, is therefore a brief one, and I should have liked to go very much further. I hope he will forgive me if I give him a very short answer. A soldier in uniform is not forbidden to attend a political meeting, but a soldier, whether he is in uniform or not in uniform, is forbidden to take any active part in the affairs of any political organization or Party. That Regulation is designedly drawn in general terms, and the good sense of the Army has, so far as I am aware, enabled it in practice to be interpreted reasonably and without difficulty. It must rest with the soldier himself to ensure that he is not infringing the spirit or the letter of that Regulation by his behaviour at any meeting which he attends. My information is the same as that of the noble Lord, that the general behaviour of those attending has never been open to question. What exactly constitutes an infringement of the Regulation must obviously depend on the circumstances at the time.
My noble friend asked me rather more specifically with regard to the putting of questions. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State was asked a somewhat similar question in another place recently, which had reference to a soldier on leave and in mufti, during an election in his own constituency, putting a question to a Parliamentary candidate at a political meeting. The Secretary of State replied:
A soldier in the circumstances mentioned who put questions in good faith to a Parliamentary candidate in order to inform his own mind would not be taking an active part in the affairs of any political organization or Party, and would not be infringing the Regulation as it stands.I would add that the Regulation is in broad terms and for many years we have successfully relied for the observance of it on the good sense of those concerned.
§ LORD CROFTI have explained that a soldier in uniform is not forbidden to attend a political meeting.
§ On Question, Bill read 3, and passed.